Another beautiful baptism in Korea!

On Saturday 조병수 (Jo Byung-Soo) got baptized! He is an amazing man. He has had a lot of difficulties in his life over the past couple years and it has been so humbling to see him seek and find for the first time the only true source of pure joy, help, and purpose! He doesn't look super excited in the picture because he works like 120 hours a week and is just a tired guy, but it was a beautiful baptismal service. President Shin (our mission president) was the one who initially met him in his taxi and President said that he didn't even recognize Brother Jo as the same person because his countenance had changed. The gospel is true!!

We also saw another pretty amazing miracle somewhat related to the baptism. We went out to lunch with Brother Jo and his son before the baptism at a little buffet near our church. As I was getting my food, a man came up to me and asked "You're the mormons, right?" I said yes and he went on to explain that he had met with a Elder Nephi Choi (who was one of the AP's when I got here) for about 5 months, but moved from that part of Gwangju to our area and lost contact. He suggested told me to take his number and give him a call later because he wants to meet. I was there with our investigator so I didn't want to take too long, but we swapped numbers and a general idea of times that would work and then parted. About 1 hour later, he called us, gave us his address, and set up an appointment for us to come by tonight to visit. Holy Cow! I am so excited to meet this man tonight that God placed in our path. We didn't do a thing, but I know that God can do all things through us as we seek to give our all to Him. God sure is amazing!!! 

Apart from miraculous coincidences and even baptismal services, I think that one of God's miracles I have enjoyed the most as a missionary is the joy of being a part of His work, a tool in His hands to spread the love of God! We definitely aren't perfect and the fact is that there are very few perfect things in the world, but God is perfect, His love is perfect, and this Gospel is perfect and our eternal divine destiny is to become as He is!! I know that God loves us so deeply and so personally. One of the best ways to find happiness is to seek to receive and understand that love as we strive to share it with others!! I know that as we do so, we are filled with the power, strength, and peace of God. I know that because God promises it and He always keeps His promises!!

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!! 

-Love, Elder Tolman

PS:

Here are a couple fun pictures: (1) Brother Jo's baptism, (2) We had a relief society program for sacrament meeting and all the sisters dressed up in their Han-bok's (the traditional Korean outfit)

Elder Tolman's 20th birthday/ The Power of Perception

잘 지내셨죠?!

This has been a wonderful week! I love Spring!! I love Korea!! I love being a missionary! 

On Sunday, there was a lesson about the resurrection and we were all asked what we think of when we think about resurrection. My favorite answer was 봄 (aka Spring!). Spring is such a beautiful symbol of rebirth, renewal, and of life. We all experience every variety of "winters" but we have the ultimate promise that every winter will always be followed with a spring, including death itself followed by the glorious promise of a resurrection!!

Our investigators are doing well. This is the last week before 조병수's baptism and we are all just praying that he will be able to keep the word of wisdom this week and be clean and prepared for baptism!! 

I don't have hardly any time, but one thought I have had recently is related to Korean taxi drivers. We don't have cars or bikes and we take taxis fairly often, sometimes because it's cheaper with 4 people together and sometimes just because we need to get around fast. As we strike up a conversation, we often ask them how their job as a taxi driver is and how they like it. The majority of people we talk to say that it is miserable and there is nothing good about it, but there are some people who seem to just love what they do and have plenty of good to say about driving a taxi. It is the same job! Same city! Taxi drivers have a pretty hard job here in Korea, but somehow there are some people who know how to make the most of it! 

Recently I have thought a lot about how important it is to just have a positive perspective. It's so important to make the most of each phase of life while we've got it!! Love the people! Be grateful! Live and learn! Serve others! Serve the Lord! See and love all that is good and glorious about life! I can promise it's there when we look for it with the hope of the gospel and with the eye of faith! I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to preach this gospel. I know that it is true!!

I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Love, Elder Tolman

PS: My Bishop made me promise I would send this picture home to prove that they took good care of me on my birthday. They are the best! 

(It was mine and also another one of our member's birthday dinner)

봄 났어요!! (Spring!!) March 16, 2014

Today at 9:39 PM

Today is such a beautiful day here in Gwangju, South Korea! 

This was a good week in lots of ways. My companion has been feeling down a lot about not being able to speak as well as he feels like he ought to by now and just about wanting to be a better missionary, but this week he really did his best to keep his head up and do all that he can and it made a big difference. He is so amazing. I love Elder Dursteler! 

We had a couple fun experiences with our investigators. We met a man on a bus who apparently had met missionaries before and said that President Hinckley was definitely a prophet, so, obviously, we were thrilled to meet with him this past Thursday. When we met at the place he had planned, he took us to his office which was a religious academy that he owns. There are a lot of churches who are sometimes deceptive in Korea and like to try to convince missionaries that they are wrong, so when he took us to his religious academy a little flag went up in the back of my mind. He also mentioned that he had another friend waiting for us there and when we walked in they had a couple Book of Mormons open on the table. I thought for sure we had just jumped into what was soon to be a little Bible warfare, but I sat down quietly and we began to talk. I soon realized I was totally wrong! This amazing man had brought this friend who is looking for religion (and also likes English) and pretty much set up a member lesson where he was the non-member member. He pretty much told us to testify about Joseph Smith and then added his own testimony to ours. He also was quick to snag a second appointment and encourage this kind lady he had brought to attend our Church. It was such a bizarre experience, but one for which we are and were humbly grateful. We don't really know exactly why this man isn't baptized yet, but were determined to try to find out this week. God works miracles!

One of my favorite scriptures this week is Psalms 118:24: "For this is the day which the Lord hath given us; and we will rejoice and be glad in it." I was just thinking about what I have learned so far and what I would like to accomplish before time runs away and I realized that I just wanted to do my best to serve with no regrets. As much as I want to be a scripture guru, master teacher, or baptizing expert, I realized that the things I could possibly regret most are whether or not I really loved the people and served in a way that they knew it, whether or not I did my absolute best to represent Christ, whether or not I learned to completely give myself to God, and especially whether or not I chose to be happy. I feel like so often I get tied up in the details of excellence that I loose sight of the bigger picture. Lehi wasn't kidding when he taught that "men are that they might have joy." There is no point in being excellent, being perfect, having a high baptismal stat, or doing any other originally worthwhile thing if we are not happy in the midst of it all. I know that God allows us to experience trials for our benefit, but I also know that He has promised His personal peace, love, and guidance throughout the hard times, not just at the end of the tunnel. So let's choose to be happy! Whether today is bright and shiny, a little gloomy, or maybe even dark and dreary, let's trust that "this is the day which the Lord hath given us," and, with His divine hand in ours, "rejoice and be glad in it!!!" 

I love you all! Have a wonderful week!!!

Love, Elder Tolman

선교사업 - 최고이죠! March 9th

This has been a little harder week, but I guess that's just what makes life, learning, and living fun. A lot of our main investigators either got busy or haven't really been returning our calls, so we have been really working this week to renew our teaching pool. But despite our frustrations, we were definitely blessed when we relied on God to find who we could teach and were able to find a couple new people to teach this week. I'll keep you updated more as we teach them in the future!

This week I read a great talk by Elder Bednar titled something like "That we might not shrink." He tells a story about this newly married couple who only weeks after their marriage find out that the husband has cancer with a less-than-hopeful chance of long term survival. As part of the story, they asked Elder Bednar to give him a blessing and he said he first wanted to ask some questions and unexpectedly asks "I know you have the faith to be healed, but do you have the faith to NOT be healed?" The talk continues to elaborate on "the faith to not be healed," and it made me think about where my faith lies and how much a REALLY trust God and His eternal perspective of things. When we experience trials, it is hard enough to have the faith that God can make it better, but I think it takes even more faith to trust that He can make it better, but might not, knowing a greater vision of what we really need. Sometimes as a missionary I think I just wish that I could finally get rid of my imperfections and become what I perceive as the perfect tool in God's hands to just perfectly powerfully bless the lives of others. But I know that God understands me and he understands you. He knows what He is doing. We just need to trust in Him. He will guide us, He will bless us, and He will comfort us. He understands a so much grander, broader, more glorious picture than any of us can imagine. Let's trust that He is, that He loves, and that He knows! Let's have the faith to sometimes not be healed, at least not right away, knowing that God is over all and that all things are for our good! 

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful day!!

Love, Elder Tolman

The people you meet March 2nd

This has been a great week number 18 here in 충장! I love this area, I love my district, and I love my companion, so I am thrilled to be staying here.

School started again here in Korea, so we have a lot of people who 갑자기 got pretty busy, but we are doing are best to work with those we have already found who will keep listening and also to continually find other people who will accept the gospel!

As we have sought to do so, we have ran into some pretty interesting people. It is so much fun! This week we met 유홍연 who is a member of what you could pretty much call the Korean mafia. He and his friends are all super rich, they all love golf, and they hang out at this little fashion shop near our house. The other set of elders have met him before and said that he actually has some gospel interest, so we actually have an appointment with him tonight! I will keep you updated there. 

We also met this group of 7 people who make up the Royal Priesthood Church who are investigating the church. They pretty much spend all of their time together and they only have two commandments: Love God and love your neighbors. They are really focused on just loving each other and making the most of life. They are really interesting people, but they are so nice and just good, so we are meeting with the founder to help them find the restored 충만한 truth! 

Then there is 전행오, who is this super deep, profound, somewhat philosophical man who apparently was a rebel in the past in Korea and was taken captive and forced to tell information about the people he was working with. He is also over-the-top dramatic whenever he speaks, so he's just a funny, wonderful man. 

이근표 is a really rich businessman who originally lives in Seoul, but probably has another home here in Gwangju because he works here often. He spends his weekends hiking with the governor of one of the biggest cities in Korea and he just happens to know someone who not just live in our apartment complex, but just happened to build it. He had a bad experience with church in the past but wants to try believing again and we are so humbled to have the opportunity to share the gospel with him.

There are others, but I am out of time. But what amazes me even more than the incredible opportunity to meet all these people is the fact that they are all individually loved, understood, and created by our Father in Heaven. We truly are the children of God and more than ever before, as I serve among these people, I know that is true. This week I read a talk from last year's April Conference titled "Being Accepted of the Lord." It reminded me where are true value comes from and how easy, but also how wrong it is to define our worth or acceptance by other means. I really recommend the talk, but I just want to testify that even when it seems as though "all other sources cease to make [us] whole," that God has promised to accept us as often as we come unto Him. It requires our broken hearts, our contrite spirits, and our sacrifice, but I know that it is always worth it. God loves us! He know us! I am so grateful to be His son and to share His message to the world! What an exciting time to be a part of the Kingdom of God!!!

I love you all! Have a wonderful day!

Love, Elder Tolman

a more difficult week

This has been a little harder week, but I guess that's just what makes life, learning, and living fun. A lot of our main investigators either got busy or haven't really been returning our calls, so we have been really working this week to renew our teaching pool. But despite our frustrations, we were definitely blessed when we relied on God to find who we could teach and were able to find a couple new people to teach this week. I'll keep you updated more as we teach them in the future!

This week I read a great talk by Elder Bednar titled something like "That we might not shrink." He tells a story about this newly married couple who only weeks after their marriage find out that the husband has cancer with a less-than-hopeful chance of long term survival. As part of the story, they asked Elder Bednar to give him a blessing and he said he first wanted to ask some questions and unexpectedly asks "I know you have the faith to be healed, but do you have the faith to NOT be healed?" The talk continues to elaborate on "the faith to not be healed," and it made me think about where my faith lies and how much a REALLY trust God and His eternal perspective of things. When we experience trials, it is hard enough to have the faith that God can make it better, but I think it takes even more faith to trust that He can make it better, but might not, knowing a greater vision of what we really need. Sometimes as a missionary I think I just wish that I could finally get rid of my imperfections and become what I perceive as the perfect tool in God's hands to just perfectly powerfully bless the lives of others. But I know that God understands me and he understands you. He knows what He is doing. We just need to trust in Him. He will guide us, He will bless us, and He will comfort us. He understands a so much grander, broader, more glorious picture than any of us can imagine. Let's trust that He is, that He loves, and that He knows! Let's have the faith to sometimes not be healed, at least not right away, knowing that God is over all and that all things are for our good! 

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful day!!

Love, Elder Tolman